A time-resolved study using infrared spectromicroscopy in a carefully controlled environment revealed why enzymes get bogged down when trying to break up cellulose from plants. The work sheds new light on the challenge of extracting the sugars locked up in plants for use in making petroleum-free fuels, chemicals, and medicines. Read more »
Watching the Enzymes that Convert Plant Fiber into Simple Sugars
Research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and UC Davis sheds new light on how to access the sugars locked up in plants to produce petroleum-free fuels, chemicals, and medicines. The technique used combines a novel microfluidic device and infrared spectroscopy to study how a cellulose-degrading enzyme works in real time. Read more »
Laser-Induced Cooperative Transition in Molecular Electronic Crystal
The cooperative tuning of a supramolecular electronic crystal enables access to a long-lived hidden conducting phase with a broad temperature range. Researchers demonstrate a dynamic and cooperative phase in K-TCNQ, with the control of pulsed electromagnetic excitation. A dedicated charge–spin–lattice decoupling is required to activate and subsequently stabilize the non-equilibrium phase. Read more »
Autonomous Data Acquisition for Scientific Discovery
Researchers at large scientific facilities such as the ALS have applied a robust machine-learning technique to automatically optimize data gathering for a variety of experimental techniques. The work promises to enable experiments with large, complex datasets to be run more quickly, efficiently, and with minimal human intervention. Read more »
To Speed Discovery, Infrared Microscopy Goes “Off the Grid”
Researchers developed a highly efficient way to collect infrared microscopy data that avoids the use of slow, grid-based raster scans. The method substantially reduces image-acquisition times by autonomously increasing sampling density in regions of interest, facilitating infrared spectromicroscopy of biochemical processes in real time. Read more »
2D Electronics Get an Atomic Tuneup
Researchers demonstrated a promising avenue for controlling atomic ordering in semiconductor alloys by engineering frustrated interactions in a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD). The work could lead to improved semiconductor performance for next-generation electronics such as optoelectronics, thermoelectrics, and sensors. Read more »
Survival of T. rex Microvascular Structures from Deep Time
Researchers used several analytical techniques at the ALS to demonstrate how soft-tissue structures may be preserved in dinosaur bones, countering long-standing scientific dogma that protein-based body parts cannot survive more than one million years. Read more »
Can Minerals in the Earth’s Lower Mantle Store Water?
Earth is considered a watery planet, simply by virtue of the fact that 71% of its surface is covered by oceans. But researchers have discovered that, in the massive volume of material in Earth’s interior, minerals can serve as an important water reservoir, providing a new perspective on our planet’s water budget. Read more »
Berkeley Lab Helps Reveal How Dinosaur Blood Vessels Can Preserve Through the Ages
A team of scientists used infrared and x-ray imaging performed at the Advanced Light Source to determine the chemical mechanisms that allow soft tissue structures to persist in dinosaur bones—countering the long-standing scientific dogma that protein-based body parts can’t survive more than 1 million years. Read more »
Scientists Explore Egyptian Mummy Bones With X-Rays and Infrared Light to Gain New Insight on Ancient Life
Researchers from Cairo University worked with teams at the ALS to study soil and bone samples dating back 4,000 years. The experiments are casting a new light on Egyptian soil and ancient mummified bone samples that could provide a richer understanding of daily life and environmental conditions thousands of years ago. Read more »